Health policy would be better off without certain terms. "Managed care"
is one—no matter where one stands on consideration of cost in medical
treatment. "Medical necessity" is another. But "malpractice liability" heads
my list of semantic stowaways whose excess baggage imperils the vessel on
which they travel. Much of the medical profession's resistance to regulatory
accountability can be traced to the sense of betrayal and persecution most
physicians feel when accused of malpractice.1